Blue Crane (Preening)

[Ken Watkins]

Another image from yesterday morning.

I really need some better method for NR, or get my settings a little better, any advice welcome.

EOS 1D MkIV

300mm F4 IS hand-held

F7.1, ISO 1600, 1/320, EV +0.33

[Scott Frye]

Beautiful bird but the background is a bit busy for my tastes. I use Noiseware Pro for noise reduction -- lasso the bird, Select/Inverse, apply the noise reduction software. This applies the noise reduction to the background only.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Ken, now that I found where Greyton is;) I can envisage all those lovely rivers and streams down your way. I like the enviromental aspect here, with a good behavioural capture. Im looking on my laptop, but the noise seems fine.

[Deborah Harrison]

Great capture of the bird but agree that something needs to be done about the background especially at the top of the image. Maybe you could darken the rocks at the top so they don't detract from the birds but I'll have to defer to the PS experts here to give you the smoothest way of doing it.

[Ken Watkins]

Thanks for your comments, I agree that the BG is not overly helpful.

The river used to have vegetation and earth until the floods 3 years ago which left it as ugly as it is now, the birds seem to like it though.